A different tale
by Thescribalreporter
Summary: Harry's brother is the boy who lived. H/G soulbond. Not your typical WBHL story. May change rating to M as story progresses


A crash was heard in the night "Lily, get up to the kids room and protect the kids" shouted James. "I thought we were supposed to be protected" she cried as the door blew open.

"You should pick your friends more carefully potter, Wormtail has been mine from the beginning" "Lily, get to the twins room, I'll take care of Voldemort."

Lily ran to her children's bedroom. Harry and mark were barely one month old. Each born on the 31 of July. Thankfully they were both asleep; quickly she began to put up shields around the room. Suddenly there was a loud crash downstairs, and then silence.

Moments later, the nursery door opened. "Ah, how precious, the Mudblood protects her spawn." "Stay away Voldemort" she snarled, "Reducto" "Avada Kedavra" the duel was on. Smirking suddenly, Voldemort through a curse in Parseltongue at the unprotected children "No" screamed lily "not my babies" throwing herself in front of the powerful curse. She collapsed on the ground. "Ah, a mother's love, so predictable. So these are the brats that are to be my downfall. Pitiful. Choosing the child closest to him, he cried "Avada Kedavra" just as harry opened his eyes. The green light struck him, but instead of killing him, he suddenly glowed bright red, just as suddenly, the light shot out at Voldemort, striking him before he could even open his mouth.

When the light faded, all that remained was a burning cloak. Voldemort's wand had meanwhile flown into Marks crib. Waking when the wand struck him, he reached for it, but when he touched it, he immediately began to scream. Dropping it suddenly, his hand was burned by the wand, leaving a dark red mark.

Minutes later, the sound of a roaring motorcycle could be heard. "No no no no no, not them, anyone but them." Running through the broken door he came to a sudden stop, seeing James lying awkwardly against the wall. "James" he cried, tears running down his face. "This is all my fault, I should have been the secret keeper" he sobbed. "Lily" looking up in amazement at his friend, Sirius heard him again "find lily" "James, your alive!" he sobbed. James cracked open his eyes, and looked at his friend "Go find lily, she went to the nursery"

"We will James, just rest" said Albus Dumbledore, who had just appeared at the door. "I have already called Poppy; she's on her way, just rest now. "Making their way up the stairs and into the nursery, they saw a sight that stunned them. There on the floor was Voldemorts robes in a pile of ashes, his wand in Marks crib. Looking down, they saw lily beginning to stir. Running to her side, Sirius grabbed her hand and cried "Lil's your alive!" "Obviously" she muttered. Opening her eyes suddenly in terror "my babies!"

"They are just fine lily" reaching down to pick up mark, Dumbledore looked at his hand "The one marked by the dark lord. Lilly, it looks like your youngest has defeated the dark lord." "He's gone forever?" asked Sirius. "No, I'm afraid the rituals that Voldemort has put himself through have made him harder to destroy than that, but for now Mark has banished him." Pointing to marks hand he said "But the prophecy I told you about said that the Dark Lord would mark him as his equal, this burn must mean that Mark is the chosen one who will eventually destroy him once and for all. The three of them looked at Mark in stunned silence. They were all so amazed at mark that no one noticed the small lightning bolt shaped scar on young Harry's forehead

"Happy birthday dear Mark, Happy birthday to you". The sound of the song drifted upstairs to Harry's room. Harry just rolled his eyes. His birthday may have been today, but he really celebrated it yesterday with his parents and his uncles. The party going on downstairs was for "the boy who lived". It was a chance for all of the ministry people to have their picture taken with Mark, and be able to tell their friends that they knew the Potters. Mark loved all the attention, but the newly 9 year old harry hated it, and was happy to let Mark have all the attention.

Neither of them was spoiled. Despite Marks fame, his parents were careful to try not to give him too much attention, and also made sure to spend quality time with harry. Despite their precautions, however, Harry and Mark were treated differently. Wherever they went, Mark was bombarded by fans, all who wanted the attention of the boy who lived, while harry was ignored.

When the two boys turned 6, Mark was given his wand, and was taken for special instructions by Dumbledore, James, Padfoot and Mooney. "Why can't you teach me too" asked harry

"Ah Harry, I'd love to, but it's too dangerous." Replied Dumbledore "Young people's magic is to unstable. Teaching Mark is dangerous enough without adding a second one to the mix. Don't worry my boy, soon enough you'll be going to Hogwarts and learning alongside your classmates."

This didn't satisfy Harry. For days he sulked around Potter manor, barely speaking to anyone, then one night, Harry got so mad at his parents, that he ended up so angry, that his magic broke every glass in the house, before passing out.

Realizing how frustrated Harry was, Lily took matters into her own hands. "Harry, come here I have something I want to show you. Have you ever heard of runes?" He looked at her strangely "runes", she said "are the magical equivalent of permanent ink. If you want something to be indestructible for a few days or years, you put an unbreakable charm on it. If you want it to be permanently indestructible, you write a rune, which is an ancient magical word or symbol. Just about anything you can do with a wand; you can do better with a rune."

Harry was hooked. Lily was still working on her joint rune and charm mastery, and soon the two of them could be seen together studying for hours on end in the library. Harry was soon studying all the ancient runic symbols, followed by Arithmancy, the study of magical numbers, which was used to put together new spells, though he didn't like that near as much as runes.

Soon, harry was putting his knowledge of runes to use. He carved runes into everything. Into His leather gloves he carved the rune for hardness, his gloves were so strong that he could pound a nail into a board. After that success the sky was the limit. A notice-me-not Rune on his cloak was almost as good as his dad's invisibility cloak. Silencing runes on his sneakers meant that nobody could hear him either.

Over the next few months, the number of pranks occurring in the potter household increased dramatically. Nobody could figure out how Padfoots hair got colored pink one morning, or why uncle Mooney's slippers kept trying to run away. Harry was pretty sure his mom had figured it out, but whenever one of the pranks happened, she just grinned a knowing smile at harry.

The sounds of the birthday party downstairs weren't getting any quieter. Harry decided it would be as good a time as any to get some cake without being noticed. Slipping down the stairs in his cloak and silenced shoes he quickly made his way over to the table holding the cake. Suddenly, he heard someone behind him "boo!" Harry jumped, tripped over himself, and fell face-first into the ground. Looking up at a laughing Sirius, he exclaimed "how did you see me?"

"I'm an original marauder; you don't think that you could keep using the same old tricks on me and expect them to work do you?" "I guess not, but it was nice while it lasted" "that's a pretty neat cloak though, did lily help you with it? Asked Sirius

"Nope, I did it all on my own"

"Wow" Sirius looked at it impressed. "Do you mind if I take a look at it, we're always looking for new advancements in the Aurors, and I'd like to show this off?"

"Sure, I was planning on making another anyways, it's all yours" Harry said as he grabbed some chocolate cake, heading back to his room. As he walked to the stairs, he nearly tripped over a small red haired girl sitting against the wall

"I'm so sorry" she quickly said "I was just trying to stay out of the way".

"Who are you" Harry asked. "Ginny Weasley. My dad works with the Potters at the ministry, and my whole family got invited over here for the birthday party. I wanted to go play quiddiditch with all the other kids, but my brothers said I'm not allowed" she said this last part with an annoyed grimace on her face. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Harry Potter"

"Harry PoPoPotter…, oh" she said quietly, "um, sorry for not recognizing you… um happy birthday."

"That's o.k., and thanks, I celebrated my birthday last night, and this party is for my brother. Anyways I hate big gatherings like this; I'm just here for the cake"

"That sounds like a plan" she said laughing.

"Hey, do you want to go to my room and play some exploding snap" Harry asked, hopefully. Ginny was one of the first people to meet Harry, and not ask to be introduced to his brother.

"Really" said Ginny "I..I'd love to. My brothers don't let me play with them that much, they usually just act like I'm in the way, well except Bill and Charlie, but they're not around as much anymore."

As the two of them walked up the stairs, neither of them saw a smirking Mooney. "The Potter family curse strikes again" he laughed to himself.

As the two of them entered Harry's room, harry got out the deck of cards. "So how many brothers do you have, anyways." He asked.

"Six brothers" she replied. Bill works as a cursebreaker, and just moved to Egypt last year. Charlie just graduated and is training to be a Dragon handler. Percy, Fred and George are all at Hogwarts, and Ron is your age".

"Wow, that's a lot of brothers" Harry said.

"yea, there a pain most times, but I know they care about me. I just hate that they always treat me like a little girl and never let me have fun with them."

"I know what you mean. Mark is the boy-who-lived and always gets so much attention. I used to hate it, but it's not really his fault is it? And at least he doesn't act like a stuck up git."

"Yea, he seems really nice. I think him and my brothers have become friends"

"That's good." Said Harry "Hopefully they'll treat him like a person and not a celebrity. I've never been jealous of all the sycophants out there. The only thing I've ever really have been jealous about is how much attention mum and dad give Mark. I mean he's always getting training and going places with them and I'm stuck here. For awhile I used to think it was because they loved him more than me."

"Oh Harry that's horrible" Ginny said. "But you said you used to think that, what happened?"

"I was about six. Mark had just gotten his training wand, and was getting to go to Hogswarts to practice. Mom and dad had just told me that I would spend the next day with Mooney again, and I kind of exploded. I screamed that they didn't love me, and that I'd wished that Mark had been an only child. Then I broke everything that was glass in the house in a burst of accidental magic before passing out."

"Wow, everything? This is a pretty big house, and you were only six!"

"Yup" I chuckled "Everything. Maybe it was a good thing I didn't have a wand at the time. Anyways, I woke up a few hours later in bed. I just knew that I was in trouble. I snuck downstairs to see if I could overhear how they were going to punish me when I heard mum sobbing into dad's shoulder. I mean, she was completely in tears going on about what a horrible mother she was, and how she was ignoring me. I felt horrible. I mean I was mad at them, but I didn't mean to make mum sob like that."

"The next day I pretended I didn't remember a thing, and they all acted like nothing had happened, I guess they didn't want me to remember any more than I wanted to remember. Not long after that mum started to teach me Runes and Arithmancy. After what I saw that night, I've always been careful to not say anything about Marks training. I love mum and dad, and uncle Padfoot and Mooney, and I know they love me, even if they have to spend more time with Mark."

"Oh Harry" Ginny said, a tear running down her face

"I just never want to see mum like that again. Whenever I start to feel jealous of Mark, I just remember that night. I know she loves me, and that's what's really important." By now, tears were running down both of their faces.

For the next few hours the two of them played exploding snap, chess, and a few muggle card games that Ginny had never heard of. Downstairs, as the guests were leaving, a red-headed couple were looking around for their daughter.

"Where is that girl" asked a red-haired woman "I haven't seen her in hours. Fred, George, I thought you were looking after your sister?"

"We haven't seen her since we told her she couldn't play Quiddiditch with us, we thought she came back inside"

"Is there a problem Molly" said Lily, walking over to where the family was huddled. "No, we just can't seem to find our youngest daughter Ginny."

"Hmm, she has to be around here somewhere" spotting Mooney and Padfoot from across the room she called them over. "have you seen the youngest Weasley anywhere you two? She seems to have disappeared."

At that Remus grinned. "Oh, I may have seen her and a young Harry head up to his room to play a game of exploding snap… a few hours ago."

"Ah the potter family curse strikes again" laughed Sirius with a big grin on his face. "Shall we go see what the two lovebirds are up to?"

"Oh be quiet Sirius, Molly and I will go get them" said Lily. Secretly she was pleased however. Harry was her quiet son, and she often worried about him. He didn't have any real friends his own age, and she still thought about that horrible night all those years ago, she was just thankful that Harry didn't remember it. She never wanted him to think that he was unloved.

As they came to Harry's room Lily knocked on the door. Opening it up she saw that indeed Ginny was with harry. They were sitting on the floor playing wizarding chess.

"Ginny, your parents are ready to go"

"Oh" she said looking at the clock on the wall "Oh!, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize the time, she said blushing.

"It's no problem dear" Lily said, "Remus knew exactly where you two were the whole time" she said with a smirk, looking at the now equally red faced harry. "Why don't you show her to the floo.

As the group made their way downstairs, Harry saw his dad, Moony and Padfoot. Padfoot caught his eye, and with a grin gave him a thumbs up. Harry just rolled his eyes.

Right as they were about to go, Ginny turned to Harry, and said quietly "thank you Harry, I had a great time"

"Me two" said harry. After hesitating a second he asked her "If it's alright with you, could I write you". Ginny looked at Harry, and suddenly grinned and threw herself at him and gave him a hug saying, "Yes, I'd love to for you to write me."

Suddenly, there was a flash of yellow light. It seemed to be emanating from the two children. As soon as it had started it stopped. The two children looked at each other in confusion, before they each began to pass out. Sirius was able to catch Harry, and Ginny's father Arthur was the nearest to her and managed to catch her. All the adults looked at each other in silence, until Sirius finally said "what was that?"


End file.
